• Building Time

    My son is 4 years old. He was born the same day Lehman Brothers collapsed in 2008. He collects things to build with in hopes that one day I’ll take the time to do that with him. Right now he’s asleep, right outside my door, on the floor, next to his red bucket of things…

  • Stations: How Community Leads to Happiness

    As I sit here, alone, in my dark, home office, I want to share with you what I have learned about community and it’s role in work and happiness in my life. Third Place Starbucks CEO, Howard Schultz, made the term “The third place,” popular in his book, Pour Your Heart Into It: How Starbucks…

  • The Stauffer Kids

    I didn’t ever want to write about my children in order to protect their privacy, but thought that if I were ever to die, which I will, they might be interested in how I thought about them in this time of their lives. I’ve written about them before in The Apple Tree and how I…

  • Free Second Chapter of Jessica: Summer Camp

    This is a continuation of the first chapter of Jessica: Internet Access Having gotten accustomed to being able to get online at a pretty regular basis, it was hard to adapt to an environment where access was extremely limited. I had dial-up access at home and in my dorm room at school, but mostly we…

  • Icy Sky – a Short, Cold Story

    The temperature dropped so fast my ears popped. I first felt the cold in my groin as my gonads retreated up into my body. I too would have to find shelter and fast. I looked around, but all I could see were sticks and trees. There was no cover, no bushes, no overpass, no cave.…

  • Upstate – a Short Story

    The phone rang. I didn’t recognize the number, but because it was from my father’s area code I decided to answer. It was the hospital. He had had a heart attack. I drove up north to see him. I was afraid of what I’d find. That town, it grinds you down. My father, he runs…

  • The Ichman – a Short Story

    A tale: Friends of Farley’s flocked around his feathered bed and gazed upon his shaven head. The boy had went to sleep with hair, but when he woke, no hair was there. Farley looked around the room for suspects, but before he could find one prospect, his ears began to burn embarrassed – unjustly as…

  • Jonathan Davis and His Dream of Doing Nothing

    #Fiction: Whenever anyone asked Jonathan Davis what he’d like to do or what he’d like to be, the answer was always the same, “Nothing.” But instead Jonathan would make up something just to satisfy the inquirer like, “watch TV,” “eat”, or “work in the air conditioning somewhere they have a dress code policy.” It’s been…

  • Fantasies of a Confined Man

    They say the best time to escape prison is before you get into it. As the the fireworks light up the sky outside, I scan the room for a way out. I know it doesn’t exist, but I still look anyway. I’m always looking for a way out. Clack! Clack! Clack! Clack! The guard’s night…